This invention relates to the fields of plant genetic engineering and crop protection.
In both monocot and dicot plants, the stress hormone abscisic acid (ABA) or environmental stress conditions such as drought, cold, and salinity can induce the expression of a number of highly conserved genes in vegetative tissues. The accumulation of these gene products is thought to protect plants from stress induced damage. Many of these genes are also expressed at the late stage of embryogenesis during seed development and are thought to be important for seed desiccation and dormancy. Several studies have identified cis-acting elements and trans-acting factors important for the regulation of these stress-inducible genes. Background information relating to the aforementioned topics is found in the following references: Skriver and Mundy, Plant Cell 2:503, 1990; Bray, Plant Physiol. 103:1035, 1993; Thomas and Bohnert, Plant Physiol. 103:1299, 1993; Chandler and Robertson, Ann. Rev. Plant Physiol. Plant Mol. Biol. 45:113, 1994; Daugherty et al., In Arabidopsis, Somerville and Meyerowitz, Eds. (CSH, CSHL, 1994), pp. 769–806; Finkelstein and Zeevaart, In Arabidopsis, Somerville and Meyerowtiz Eds. (CSH, CSHL 1994), pp. 523–553; Giraudat et al., Plant Mol. Biol. 26, 1957, 1994; Rock and Quantrano, Curr. Biol. 4:1013, 1994; Thomashow, In Arabidopsis, Somerville and Meyerowitz, Eds. (CSH, CSHL, 1994) pp. 807–834; Gosti et al., Mol. Gen. Genet. 246:10, 1995; and Knight et al., Plant Cell 7:499, 1995; Xu et al., Plant Physiol. 110:249, 1996; Guiltinan et al., Science 250:267, 1990; Finkelstein, Mol. Gen. Genet. 238:401, 1993; Thomas, Plant Cell 5:1401, 1993; Parcy et al., Plant Cell 6:1567, 1994; Hattori et al., Plant J. 7:913, 1995; Hoecker et al., Genes Dev. 9:2459, 1995; McCarty, Rev. Plant Physiol. Plant Mol. Biol. 46:71, 1995; Nambara et al., Development 121:629, 1995; Nakagawa et al., Plant J. 9:217, 1996; Hattori et al., Genes Dev. 6:609, 1992; Pla et al., Plant Mol. Biol. 24:701, 1994; Baker et al., Plant Mol. Biol. 24:701, 1994; Yamaguchi-Shinozaki and Shinozaki, Plant Cell 6:251, 1994; Menkens et al., Trend Biochem. Sci. 20:506, 1995; Shen and Ho, Plant Cell 7:295, 1995; Taylor et al., Plant J. 7:129, 1995; de Vetten and Ferl, Plant J. 7:589, 1995; and Lu et al., Plant Cell 8:847, 1996).